Just remember that I said it's not the best RPG out there, but it's one I would recommend for those who played everything else.
Remember, DS2 keeps the engine, so the fighting/looting is the same diablo-with-a-party like gameplay. Combatwise it is still a hack-n-slash RPG, and you do spend a lot of time hacking whatever stands in your path, just like in DS1. But what it have that DS1 didn't is a rich world and a story. That means actual places, towns filled with quests and npc's, a growing story and plenty of hidden areas to explore. Kinda reminds me of Divine Divinity in that regard, which also had diablo-style combat and looting, but it's goodness comes from having a real world to explore making it much more than smacking randomly generated foes for xp/loot.